As the Cubs mark the 100th anniversary of their last World Series title, we look at what has happened in the years since. 1996 After spending most of the season well below .500, the Cubs crawled into contention in August and as late as Sept. 13 were 74-72 and just five games out of the Central lead. Then came eight straight losses (12 in 13 games) and the ride was over. The Cubs finished 76-86, but there were high points. Sammy Sosa hit the 40-mark in homers and drove in 100 runs, Mark Grace...

Trade rumors: A Baltimore newspaper report, citing unidentified sources, said the Cubs and Orioles had discussed a possible trade involving Brian McRae and Bobby Bonilla. Cubs general manager Ed Lynch's response: "I'm not going to talk about other people's players. I'm just not going to react to it either way. Brian McRae is an important part of this club. It would make no sense to trade him."

Downtown Chicago is shedding some light on its hopes to host the 2016 Olympics. In conjunction with the visit by the United States Olympic Committee, downtown buildings are illuminating "2016" to demonstrate Chicago's continued support of athletics. Two of the structures involved are the LaSalle Bank buildings located at 135 S. LaSalle St. and 540 W. Madison St. Carey Pinkowski, executive race director of the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon, has been assisting with the design of the proposed...

Bonilla steams: Saying the New York Mets could "ship me to Alaska" if they wanted to get rid of him, Bobby Bonilla reacted angrily to a report the team had put him and fellow outfielder Brian McRae on waivers.

Bonilla steams: Saying the New York Mets could "ship me to Alaska" if they wanted to get rid of him, Bobby Bonilla reacted angrily to a report the team had put him and fellow outfielder Brian McRae on waivers.

Brent Mayne and Jose Lind drove in the fourth-inning runs that gave Kansas City its first two-run lead of the season. Brian McRae blooped a single into left-center field in the first inning, turned a grounder under the glove of second baseman Chuck Knoblauch into a third-inning double and hustled his way to a triple in the seventh. "That's the way we have to play if we're going to win," McRae said.

Mets outfielder Brian McRae predicted April 7 at Wrigley Field that the Cubs couldn't win because of the "negative aura" surrounding their infamous past. If the Cubs were still in a race in September, McRae said, the fans and media would start reminding them of past failures like 1969, bringing up the fact they haven't been to a World Series since 1945. Now the Cubs enter the final week of the 1998 season with a chance to win a wild-card playoff spot and, because the Mets are the...

The Tigers won their sixth straight. Tony Phillips, the leading hitter in the American League, led off the game with a single and Lou Whitaker was hit by a pitch from Mark Gubicza (0-3). Travis Fryman followed with a single, and Phillips scored on center-fielder Brian McRae's error. Kirk Gibson doubled for a 3-0 lead, stole third and scored on a wild pitch. Tom Bolton (1-0), making his first start since last August, gave up one run on four hits in five innings.

In one of the worst starts of his career, Greg Maddux became the NL's first 17-game winner and the Atlanta Braves defeated the reeling Los Angeles Dodgers 12-7 Sunday night in Atlanta. Andres Galarraga hit his 40th homer, becoming the first player to hit 40 homers in consecutive seasons for two different teams. Maddux (17-6), coming off his 200th win and leading the majors with a 1.65 ERA, was pounded for 10 hits and seven earned runs but managed to hang on until the fifth because...

Fast start: Center-fielder Brian McRae, whose contract-extension talks are on hold, is having an uncharacteristic April. Entering Monday night's game, McRae was batting .286 with seven runs batted in, six runs scored and six stolen bases, and had hits in 10 of the Cubs' first 11 games. Last season he hit .217 in April, and over the last five years, he has averaged .249 during the month. Guzman update: Pitcher Jose Guzman has been sent to Class A Daytona for an injury...

New York center-fielder Brian McRae promised some of his teammates they would receive a nice financial reward if the Mets manage to sweep the Cubs this week. The ex-Cub claims he has no animosity against his former team. He simply enjoys watching the Cubs lose. McRae got an opportunity to do just that on Tuesday, as Al Leiter and some stellar relief pitching led the Mets to a 3-2 victory over the Cubs on a soggy, rain-delayed afternoon at Wrigley Field, ending their winning streak at six games.

- SCORE: Cubs 6, Giants 3 (10 innings). - SPRING RECORD: 14-14. - AT THE PLATE: Ozzie Timmons' three-run double with two outs in 10th put the Cubs back at .500. Brian McRae homered. - ON THE MOUND: Terry Mulholland went seven innings, allowing three runs on eight hits, no walks and four strikeouts. He pitched six shutout innings after a three-run first. Turk Wendell got the save with a scoreless 10th. - IN THE FIELD: McRae made a sliding catch to rob Darrin Jackson of...

Ex-Cubs center-fielder Brian McRae returns to town with the Mets on Tuesday after lambasting his former team and saying he's looking forward to "kicking their butt." McRae also was quoted as saying Cubs manager Jim Riggleman was "more worried about what was read and said than winning ballgames," implying he listened too much to the media, and that he hopes the Cubs finish last again. Riggleman refused to get into a war of words with McRae. "I'm disappointed that he would say anything,"...

Big Mac attack You remember Brian McRae, right? Former Cubs center-fielder? Yeah, the guy who was part of the Cubs' big heist with the Mets that also sent Mess, uh, Mel Rojas and Turk Wendell to New York mostly for Lance Johnson and Mark Clark. Well, for a guy who couldn't hit last year when he was here, McRae sure took some rips this weekend. The Cubs are "a terrible organization" that refused to spend money, he told WFAN, which is New York's sports-talk answer...

The Cubs 1997 season ultimately will be remembered for three things: the record-setting 0-14 start, the end of the Ryne Sandberg era and Mel Rojas. Come April of '98, all of that will be ancient history and the Cubs will have another chance to get it right before the end of the 20th century. What else is there to say about this team that already hasn't been said? It has been said over and over again that the Cubs have underachieved, that they are dull, that they have no power and no...

Two disparate lines of thinking seem to have developed as to evaluating Cubs manager Jim Riggleman's performance. Some believe Riggleman has been saddled with a dog team from the start of spring training and never had an opportunity to prove whether he is a playoff-caliber manager. Others point to the bottom line and insist that any manager whose team is on pace to lose 97 games on Sept. 1 should be out of a job come Oct. 1. The only two opinions that...